The Best Policy
by wintergreen825
Summary: Bill decides to try & flirt with Fleur. ...that goes...well, it certainly goes.


**Legal Disclaimer:** I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.

**Warning:** This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.

**Author's Note:** No. I didn't do JKR's imperial accent for Fleur. Why? Because I'm not racist against anyone not "properly" British. (Sorry, JKR, we know you don't like when people elect to not ignore **your racism**.) Fleur does still have an accent, but it's not designed to make her dialogue difficult to read and focuses more on the inflections it brings to her dialogue. It was also built with the help of an actual francophone, to ensure maximum accuracy.

**Dedication:** to Elizabeth of Gryffindor (on Hogwarts) for listening to me kvetch about JKR's word crimes when I got derailed trying to write this fic. You got me back on track!

**Submitting Info:**  
**Stacked with:** Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A (SuBingo; Ship; War; FPC; BAON; ToS; SIN; Star; Fence; AV; FR; O3)  
**Individual Challenges:** Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Gryffindor MC; Seeds; Shipmas; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A [Love] (Y); Themes & Things B [Risk] (Y); Feeling So Logical [Beautiful]; True Colours; No Punny Business; Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Flags & Ribbons (Y); Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux  
**House:** Hufflepuff  
**Assignment No.:** Term 11 – Assignment 01  
**Subject (Task No.):** Photography (Task #5: Write about someone who is viewed as, or believes that they are, extremely good looking and sexy.)  
**Other Hogwarts Challenges:** Insane Prompt Challenge [940] (Charcoal); 365 Words [70] (Permission); Scavenger Hunt [53] (Write a fic for a member of Gryffindor); Summer Seasonal Challenges [30] (Russell Baker quotation); Mythology Club [10] (Beautiful); Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour [1] (Fleur Delacour) & [1] (Write a war fic.); Disney Challenge [Iridessa] (Write about a character on the 'light' side of the war.); Liza's Loves [11] (Write about someone who speaks a language other than English.); Scamander's Case [17] (Powerful); Marvel Appreciation [Power 1] (Powerful)  
**Space Address (Prompt):** Summer Bingo [2A] (Gray)  
**Representation(s):** Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley; Family impact; Bank Employees  
**Bonus Challenges: **Creature Feature; Wind Beneath; Lovely Coconuts; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Middle Name; Unwanted Advice); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; Larger than Life; Unicorn)  
**Tertiary Bonus Challenges:** FR (Evolution); O3 (Olivine)  
**Word Count:** 1070

(^^)  
**The Best Policy  
**(^^)  
"What power you have to make us suffer and like it."  
– Russell Baker  
(^^)

Bill Weasley was not the sort of person who judged a person by their appearance. After all, just because someone appeared to be beautiful, it didn't mean that they were like that on the inside. If he had learned anything in the six years since he had left Hogwarts, it really was that bit of wisdom. Of course, the second most important thing he had learned was that a lot of the prejudices that seemed important to his parents were rather meaningless now that he was out on his own.

Not that his parents were _bad people_ exactly. It was just that they were rather stuck in their way. His father had many fine qualities, but when his detractors mentioned his lack of ambition and drive, they were right. All of Bill's life, Arthur Weasley had claimed to be fascinated with Muggles. Yet he never bothered to visit the library in the mixed village the Burrow was only a fifteen-minute walk from (not like Charlie who was fascinated by dragons and could recite complete textbooks about them). Molly Weasley claimed to be accepting of others, but she remained openly suspicious of anyone who wasn't raised in British magical society.

No, British _human_ magical society, as she always had plenty to say about the goblins that Bill worked with as a curse breaker. Honestly, it was as tiring as constantly hearing about his hair or his earring. At least the earring got a pass most of the time, since it was a gift from Charlie.

The point of all of these meandering thoughts was that Bill Weasley never just looked at someone and made snap judgements about their abilities or their character. That was something that he just didn't do, because he knew it sucked. He was not that kind of person, or at least he gave a decent effort towards not being that kind of person.

Yet when Fleur Delacour walked into the briefing room at Gringotts on her first day at the London branch, Bill did make a few assumptions. To be fair, they weren't as bad as the assumptions being made by other humans in the room, but they were assumptions, nonetheless. While the other men were tripping over themselves to gain her attention, Bill hung back and took in how she had worn a dress (not a robe, but an actual dress) that had the delicate sheen that meant it was some sort of charcoal-colored silk. He scanned the skin she had on display, locking onto the pale gray tattoo that wrapped around her biceps up to her shoulders where it dipped under the cover of her square-cut bodice. He watched as she drew up in challenge, tilting her chin in a way that emphasized how pointed it was. The flash of her teeth as she smiled at her swarm of admirers told him how willing she was to bite off any hand that touched her without permission.

She was beautiful, yes, but in the same way that a dagger might be. No matter how pretty and fancy the sheath, it was always the blade that cut, that killed. The others might be distracted by the aura extruding from her like perfume, but Bill remembered how she had subdued a dragon single-handedly with nothing but her voice. Charlie had gone on about it for almost as long as he had Krum costing the reserve half a nest of eggs.

Anyone who could do that was certainly worthy of being accepted into the Gringotts curse breakers.

Anyone that powerful while also that beautiful was definitely someone that Bill Wealsey had no chance at ever dating, let alone marrying and having a happily ever after with. Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and he was a Gryffindor for more reasons than Weasleys always were Gryffindor. So when the crowd of curse breakers finally dispersed from around their newest member, Bill decided to take his chance.

"So, did it hurt?" he asked, trying to be as cool as his younger siblings thought he was. Fleur looked at him with a blank face before slowly raising a perfectly shaped brow. Bill cleared his throat and continued. "When you fell from Heaven, I mean. Did it hurt?"

"_Non_," Fleur said in a flat tone, "but I did break a nail on my way out of 'ell."

"You've heard that one before?"

"Yes," she agreed. Bill could _feel_ his already minute chances dying at the ice in her tone. "I 'ave heard that one _many times_."

"So maybe I shouldn't ask you if you are lost because Heaven is so far away?"

"Definitely not," she agreed again, only marginally warmer. "I also do not appreciate being compared to an over-cooked steak or any kind of animal. I will not taste the rainbow from your lips, nor will they ever meet yours. It is not illegal to look this good and even the finest dragonhide gloves would allow you to ever 'andle me. My legs are not sore. I do have a name and you may _not_ call me yours. And if you follow me home, I will not keep you. I will shrink you, put you in a bottle, and toss you in the Thames."

"You really know your cheesy pickup lines, don't ya?"

The look she gave him could have melted glaciers. The smart thing would be to just leave her alone, as she clearly wanted. Then again, Gryffindors weren't exactly known for being the House of the smart people.

"Are you a banana?" Bill asked. Fleur looked confused instead of irritated, which was definite a step up from the look she had been giving him. "It's just that I find you so a-_peel_-ing."

"That is 'orrible," she replied after a moment that Bill wish she really would shrink him down to bottle size and toss him in the Thames. "Truly and utterly 'orrible."

"What? Am I supposed to just blurt out that you are beautiful and I'm a big fan of the way you can take down dragons by yourself?"

The ice finally melts as Fleur smiled at him, flashing her teeth happily now instead of threateningly. She leaned into his space. A smell like petrichor and waterlilies filled his lungs, and he knew it was from her. She tapped his nose with the tip of her finger.

"But of course," she chided, "admiration is best when it is honest, _non_?"


End file.
